美国NBA泡泡现场度过54天，这些必备装备我离不开（2023年）。

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I Spent 54 Days in the NBA Bubble. Here's the Gear I Couldn't Live Without.

Published September 17, 2020
I spent nearly two months this summer living in a bubble within a bubble.

The New York Times sent me to Walt Disney World in July, but not for a vacation. I was The Times's first of two representatives in the media corner of the NBA bubble, assigned to cover everything happening on the league's restricted-access, highly surveilled Disney campus, where 22 teams were summoned to play out the rest of the 2019--20 season for up to three months. The league's goal was twofold: It wanted to crown a champion, as it had in each of the NBA's first 73 seasons, but it also wanted to keep the coronavirus from infiltrating this first-of-its-kind village and forcing a permanent cancellation of its 74th season. As such, in the name of safety, rules kept reporters to a 1-square-mile section of the broader bubble, which housed hundreds of players in three off-limits team hotels.

Reporters like me, fresh off four months with nowhere to go in the wake of the NBA's March 11 shutdown in response to the coronavirus pandemic, were naturally eager to be close to the game again---whatever the restrictions. Yet I spent much of my 54 days in Central Florida, apart from game venues and practice gyms, in the same 314-square-foot hotel room. This routine required a fierce focus and some technical assistance---even for a seasoned traveler like me, and even when I was housed at a place that bills itself as the most magical on Earth.

Here are the devices, some modern and some simple, that kept me at peak functionality, and without which I surely would have been lost.

1. BlackBerry KEY2 smartphone

Photo: BlackBerry

I'm not trying to be morbid, but there is a decent chance I will die with a BlackBerry device of some sort in my hand. I also carry an iPhone with me at all times for the music, apps, and camera goodness, but I cannot live without my BlackBerry's physical keyboard. The portability of the device and the way it helps me laser in on one screen when I'm trying to put words together are priceless boosts to my writing process. I still write the first draft of pretty much every article, including this one, on my KEY2.

2. AmazonBasics Microwave

Photo: Amazon

It's not that I'm a fan of this particular brand of microwave. (After I left the bubble, in fact, CNN reported that a design flaw may cause the AmazonBasics Microwave to catch fire.) But player rooms at the three hotels that housed the 22 teams invited to the NBA restart were all outfitted with microwaves, and media hotel rooms were not. I quickly discovered that a microwave was one item, in these conditions, that I couldn't live without, so The Times authorized me to shell out $60 to order this AmazonBasics model. Cold food, on top of the limited food options we had on this restricted-access campus, would have been difficult to stomach.

3. AmazonBasics Electric Kettle

Photo: Amazon

Bubble life is rough on coffee snobs like me. I am great at buying coffee and terrible at making it, which meant I had to figure out something fast, because the only options available to reporters (weak drip coffee in the media meal room and an in-room Keurig) were, to put it charitably, less than optimal. So I ordered an AeroPress and this electric hot water kettle from Amazon, studied some YouTube videos for AeroPress tricks, and made my own coffee every morning. I am proud of this achievement because---I repeat---I can barely make toast.

4. Kinexon SafeTag

Photo: Kinexon

This was not elective technology. All bubble inhabitants---except for players---

were required to affix a Kinexon SafeTag proximity alarm to their campus credential. The alarms are designed to promote social distancing but also to assist with contract tracing in the event someone on campus tests positive for the coronavirus. The alarms beeped any time two people wearing them were less than 6 feet apart for 10 seconds---provided the alarms were charged overnight. In interview situations, when reporters were unable to maintain 6 feet of distance as we got as close to players as we could manage, the alarms often produced a symphony of chirping.

5. Kinsa smart thermometer

6. Masimo MightySat pulse oximeter

Photo: Masimo

Likewise required to maintain bubble citizenship was the daily use of a Kinsa smart thermometer and a Masimo MightySat fingertip pulse oximeter. Via the magic of Bluetooth and the league's own health app, I began every day the same way for the entirety of my stay: I recorded my temperature and oxygen-saturation readings and filled out a brief questionnaire regarding potential COVID-19 symptoms before heading out of my room to get my daily coronavirus test.

7. MagicBand

Photo: Disney

Veteran Disney World--goers know that a plastic MagicBand, which you wear on your wrist like a watch, serves as a room-entry device that also has credit card capabilities. In the NBA bubble, MagicBands doubled as a device people were required to scan against a sensor for entry at the coronavirus testing suites and for access to practice sites and game venues. (There were team-specific designs, such as the Lakers version pictured, while mine, for members of the media, was a mostly gray issue adorned with multiple NBA logos.) If you left your room without recording your temperature and oxygen saturation, or without filling out the questionnaire, those subsequent MagicBand scans would be rejected. The MagicBand, in the NBA bubble, was as essential an accessory as the face coverings that were mandatory at virtually all times---and I must say it made for a nice (and unique) Disney collectible to bring home.

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